The Holder of Salmacis

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house. Go immediately to the front desk and ask the clerk to let you visit "The Holder of Salmacis". Should they look you up and down, judgmentally, you have come to the right place. They will push a hidden button. Stand perfectly still. The janitor will come and escort you into an adjacent hallway and through a door. Once through the door, he will take you by the shoulders and ask you if you have met with the Holder of Passion. Answer honestly. If your answer is no, he will shove you out the door. Run fast and run far. Do not stop until the sun sets twice, for every plant in the city will wish to crush your body to bloody dust.

If your answer was yes, he will take you deeper into the complex. You will hear a variety of screams, both male and female. If you were to look into the doors of the hall, you would see in each a man and a woman, sewn together in every grotesque manner. Do not look in those doors. If you do, you will be taken into one of them and sewn to another person without anesthesia, and they will forever struggle to pull away from you, tugging at the seams until your skin threatens to tear.

Since you did not look in, the janitor will take you to the end of the hall. He will take you through another door, and take you by the hand. He will ask if you have met with the Holder of Innocence. Answer honestly. If your answer is no, he will glare at you angrily and smash your head against the door until your brains cover you. This hall will not allow you to die from this, and instead you will lay there for all eternity without the ability to move or ponder anything beyond your own pain.

If your answer was yes, he will take you down this new hallway. It will appear to wind and twist, like a serpent coiled around a cylinder. Do not be fooled. This hallway is straighter than any arrow. Step off the true path and you will fall for all eternity. When you reach the end he will ask you one last question. "Have you met with the Holder of the Triskelion?" Do not answer! This is a trick, one that will cost you your life unless you discover its secret. There is no Holder of the Triskelion. Instead, you must hold up either Object 5 or 13: The Eye of Light or the Shattered Hourglass of Darkness. If you say anything or hold up any other Object, even those in the deepest pits of hell will weep for you.

He will take you within one final door and lock you inside. This room will be pitch dark and empty, save for the door, a chair, and an antique clock. Sit in the chair and pat your inner thighs thrice. Turn the chair to face the clock, then stand and move the hands of the clock back 4 minutes and 13 seconds. The door will slide away and reveal a hallway different from the one you were in before. This forgotten hallway will appear run-down, save for the ivory statuettes of both men and women flanking you along the walls. Though beautifully carved, these statuettes will have their faces wracked with the pain of child-birth. Yes, even the male statues will have distended bellies from a child their bodies should never be able to bring to term, and they cannot push them from their bodies. Do not touch these statues.

Run now, down to the end of the hall. Do so quickly, for time has begun again and your window is short. At the end, you will find a chainsaw with a diesel engine. Start it up. Slash and carve away at all the statuettes. do not let a single one survive, and do not let a single shard of them touch you. If you failed in this, the statuettes will grow to full human height and set upon you, and will do every manner of unclean act to you. When they are finished, you become just as them. Forever giving birth, forever defiling, never free. Pray this is not your fate and you still have time to return to the room with the clock from whence you came.

Sit in the chair and face the clock, but do not let the chainsaw stop running. The clock's gears will fall down, forming a mouth full of gear-teeth. This mouth will pucker. Lean down and kiss it. Be sure your eyes are closed and your kiss is passionate. Accept its porcelain tongue in your mouth as you would a lover. If you do not, those same gears will pulverize you slowly. Do not stop kissing if arms wrap around your shoulders, or porcelain legs around your waist. This is the Holder of Salmacis.

She will appear as a perfect doll woman, a mannequin correct in anatomy down to every inch. All save for a bracket just above her nethers. Do not stare at this bracket. Stare only into her eyes. "Only the Seeker of Holders should have made it this far," she will say, "Are you the Seeker?" Tell her the truth. For your punishment if you are not will pale in comparison to the seven hells visited upon you for lying. If you are the Seeker, she will begin to talk. She will tell you of her twin sister, the Bride and Holder of the Seeker. She will tell you of her many surgeries. She will tell in vivid detail of her slow transformation into a living doll. Each cut and seam made without anesthesia. Do not listen, or your body will undergo the same surgeries as she speaks them. Instead, squat down and pat your inner thighs once per second, 253 times. When you have done this, she will be done speaking. Ask her, "How may I deliver our last hope?"

She will smile at you and reach up, grabbing unseen handles in the ceiling. She will lift herself into the air, but her legs and waist will not come with her. Now you must complete the body. Place into the pelvis Object 18, the Uterus of Passions. Attach to the bracket Object 19, the Phallus of Innocence. She will then descend and reattach. Quickly, hold her close to you, for a circle of sharp blades will fire up from the floor, carrying with it crimson silk.

Do not let go of her. Ignore the searing, slicing pain in your legs and abdomen. Clutch her close. Ignore the spray of blood from your chest. If you were to let her go now, this pain would be yours eternally. She will then step back, and drop to the floor. Her pelvis will be missing, and her breasts will be gone. She will be dead. The searing pain in your loins and chest will subside, but do not look down! If you do so now a madness beyond all others will take you. The silk ring will twist and twirl, tightening into rope with you still inside. Do not panic. Do not struggle. When it seems you will be crushed, the silk will slip around you. You will find yourself standing before three doors. Two will be restroom doors. One will have a strange mark.

Take the center door with the mark. You will find yourself in a restroom, similar to a men's restroom, but sweet smelling, and with a dispenser for feminine hygiene products. Go into one of the stalls and look down. The pelvis you constructed in the Holder of Salmacis, as well as her breasts, are now yours. Become acquainted with your new body. When you are done, leave the restroom, and you will find yourself in the lobby of the mental institution.

Her pelvis is object 92 out of 538. With it, you may bear the child of Passions and Innocence. Whether you taint it with Light or Darkness is up to you.